Al Jazeera’s New York and Washington, D.C. journalists have reportedly received strict orders from Qatari management: please do not use the words “terrorist,” “militant,” “Islamist,” “jihad” and “extremist” in your reporting.
After a January 27 Islamist terrorist attack in Libya, an internal email obtained by National Review showed that Al Jazeera English executive Carlos van Meek sent out an email demanding that his employees refrain from using the banned terms. “All: We manage our words carefully around here,” van Meek reportedly wrote. “So I’d like to bring to your attention some key words that have a tendency of tripping us up.”
Van Meek explained, “One person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter,” in writing why his employees must stop using the aforementioned words. “Avoid characterizing people,” he reportedly added.
Regarding the term Islamist: “Do not use,” van Meek wrote in bold. “We will continue to describe groups and individuals, by talking about their previous actions and current aims to give viewers the context they require, rather than use a simplistic label.:
“Strictly speaking, jihad means an inner spiritual struggle, not a holy war,” van Meek said in explaining why the Arabic term will no longer be allowed in Al Jazeera’s reporting. He continued, “It is not by tradition a negative term. It also means the struggle to defend Islam against things challenging it.”
He added: “We do not use words such as militants, radicals, insurgents. We will stick with fighters.”
National Review reports that van Meek was previously described as the man tasked with “establishing Al Jazeera in America.”
Breitbart News has reported on Al Jazeera’s radical past, including its current support for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood terror group.
After September 11, 2001, the network’s headquarters in Doha reportedly put on display multiple pictures in its studio honoring the deceased Al Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden.
In 2013, dozens of staff resigned in protest of Al Jazeera’s “biased coverage” in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood jihadist organization.
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